The overall aim of the Molecular Biology Core is to provide a series of services to the Projects 1-5 on this Program Project, that are most efficiently and conveniently provided by a centralized facility. A prominent function of this core will be testing and establishing new and advanced technologies of molecular biology towards facilitation of the identification of mutated DNA sequences. In the recent past, the Molecular Biology Core has established several advanced techniques, including direct sequencing of PCR products and single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) electrophoresis, among others to be used in the laboratories. The Molecular Biology Core also operates several sophisticated pieces of equipment that will be used by a number of investigators on this project. The degree of sophistication of this equipment mandates that they will be best maintained and operated by individuals who are thoroughly familiar with them. These equipment items include a nucleotide synthesizer (ABI) which provides sequencing primers and oligonucleotides for hybridizations to investigators in all five projects, and an automated DNA sequencer (ABI). Current efforts are directed to establish a functional robotic workstation for DNA amplification and DNA sequencing reactions.